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Trident VGA and IBM PC

Thanks to SkydivingGirl's heads up I was able to do the modification on my card and it works now on my Hyundai clone :D
I improvised a little to make it a little cleaner, after severing the ALE trace I just made a small solder bridge to the +5v plane at the backside since both the former ALE via and +5v planes are really close.




edit:
a piece of advice -> count the Trident IC pins and don't rely on the silkscreen indicating pin20 , it's a little offset and it actually points to pin19
 
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keropi said:
...I improvised a little to make it a little cleaner, after severing the ALE trace I just made a small solder bridge to the +5v plane at the backside since both the former ALE via and +5v planes are really close.

Click to expand...

I like that better. I'm not a big fan of putting tape on the finger. It could come off when pulling the card out and stay down in the ISA connector, causing problems with the next card to be plugged in there. It also looks easier putting the solder bridge on the back of the card instead of the wire on the chip.
 
Nice job keropi! :D

Does anyone know if there would ever be a need to undo this mod to use the card in some systems or should it work in everything with this mod done?

Heather
 
SkydivinGirl said:
Does anyone know if there would ever be a need to undo this mod to use the card in some systems or should it work in everything with this mod done?
Click to expand...

Well, given sergey's extensive testing above (including a 286, which should have way different handling of ALE anyway), I think it should be fine in everything. Of course, there are so many PCs that you never know for sure.
 
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keropi said:
Thanks to SkydivingGirl's heads up I was able to do the modification on my card and it works now on my Hyundai clone :D
I improvised a little to make it a little cleaner, after severing the ALE trace I just made a small solder bridge to the +5v plane at the backside since both the former ALE via and +5v planes are really close.




edit:
a piece of advice -> count the Trident IC pins and don't rely on the silkscreen indicating pin20 , it's a little offset and it actually points to pin19
Click to expand...

That's a good idea for implementing this mod. Thank you for the picture!
 
archeocomp said:
Sergey will you be making new design? I finally want to make your VGA (working:))
Click to expand...

I fixed the schematic, connecting TVGA controller ALE signal to 5V, and updated the PCB layout. The new design files are available on the project page. Look for version 1.1.

I haven't reordered the PCBs, and I don't plan to do that in the near future. Meanwhile the PCB can be ordered from OSH Park
 
Excellent work by everyone in this thread! I was super impressed with this card in my Commodore PC10-III and now I'm able to use one in my 5160. Thanks everyone!

I'd be willing to put together a group buy if people were interested in getting a batch of PCBs made. Otherwise, I'll probably order a few from Oshpark. :)

Heather
 
Hi, I'm working on building an XT compatible system including sergey's ISA Super VGA. I am also new to the vcfed forums *wave* :)

Just noticed in Kicad that the v1.1 board specifies a 1uf capacitor for C17, but the BOM specifies a 1nf cap for C17. Then I also noticed that C17 is omitted in the example board shown there on the website. Does anyone know for sure what the correct capacitance value is for C17, and why it has not been soldered in on the board shown on sergey's website?

Also, please let me know if there's a better place to be posting questions about sergey's ISA Super VGA card (surprisingly I couldn't find another more suitable thread about the project).

Cheers!
 
EleDip said:
Just noticed in Kicad that the v1.1 board specifies a 1uf capacitor for C17, but the BOM specifies a 1nf cap for C17. Then I also noticed that C17 is omitted in the example board shown there on the website. Does anyone know for sure what the correct capacitance value is for C17, and why it has not been soldered in on the board shown on sergey's website?
Click to expand...
Welcome to these forums. Hopefully, sergey will see your post soon.
 
I don't think it even matters :)
C17 is a part of a filter on a Monitor ID pin. That pin was used by a really old VGA monitors to identify color vs. monochome monitor.
Newer monitors (since late 90's) do not use this pin at all.
 
Hello everybody. My name is Luiz and I live in Brazil. For over 5 years I've been putting together parts to assemble my retro-pc computer. And I decided to build Sergey's computer. I built the micro 8088, and finished it this week. I bought the boards at JLCPCB that are easy and cheap to arrive in Brazil. There are still parts missing to assemble Sergey's SVGA. The computer beeps but my video card does not give an image. It's a Trident TVGA8900D board and after reading all the posts I tried to do what was done by Sergey and connected the ALE pin to 5V and still no video. After a lot of reading the datasheets I saw that there are some configuration pins and leaving the MD17 pin at high level (1) and the MD16 at low level (0) it worked normally too. I reconnected the ALE pin to the original location and the computer worked normally. I'm just an enthusiast and not an engineer like all of you. But if this helps someone then I'll leave my experience here. My english is very bad and forgive me if it's not clear. Thanks Sergey for the beautiful project, it worked promptly. Congratulations.
 
luizrcsprado said:
Hello everybody. My name is Luiz and I live in Brazil. For over 5 years I've been putting together parts to assemble my retro-pc computer. And I decided to build Sergey's computer. I built the micro 8088, and finished it this week. I bought the boards at JLCPCB that are easy and cheap to arrive in Brazil. There are still parts missing to assemble Sergey's SVGA. The computer beeps but my video card does not give an image. It's a Trident TVGA8900D board and after reading all the posts I tried to do what was done by Sergey and connected the ALE pin to 5V and still no video. After a lot of reading the datasheets I saw that there are some configuration pins and leaving the MD17 pin at high level (1) and the MD16 at low level (0) it worked normally too. I reconnected the ALE pin to the original location and the computer worked normally. I'm just an enthusiast and not an engineer like all of you. But if this helps someone then I'll leave my experience here. My english is very bad and forgive me if it's not clear. Thanks Sergey for the beautiful project, it worked promptly. Congratulations.
Click to expand...
ALE connection is not important for Micro 8088. TVGA8900D should have 8-bit/16-bit configuration jumpers (3 of them, if I am not mistaken). Make sure that they are set.
 
Thanks all the guys here for providing the ALE mod fix. I can confirm trident 9000i-2 is working now on my Amstrad PPC640. I extended its bus, with databus pullups to an ISA socket and this card. I just had this 8-16 bit card .. so it was a relief. great effort monitoring the isa control signals.
 
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